Tuesday, August 07, 2012

CoffeeShop Sunburst Brushes and Tutorial: Part 1



I love photos with beautiful sun rays/lens flare and get excited when I can capture them in-camera (above).  However, sometimes you want to have the artistic license to add them to your photo later in the editing process.  I wrote my Sun Kissed action using the lens flare option in Photoshop, but I really also wanted the option to manually add my own sunburst with a Photoshop brush.

Like usual, I prefer to create my own brush and then share it to you so you can use it in your own editing.  So I googled and found this little video that I followed to create two Photoshop brushes.

Download the zipped file to your desktop and then unzip it.  Right click on the brush file (abr) and then click on "Open with" and open it in Photoshop or PSE.  If you want to install it permanently in PSE then go to Edit, Preset Manager.  Then Load the actions and click on Done (see screenshot below).


To use the brush (I will have screenshots on my next post), add a new layer over your image.  Select your brush color and brush the sunburst brush on your image.  Free Transform it to fit your image and then slightly  gaussian blur to make it more realistic.  You can use a white brush and put it in screen mode and adjust opacity or use a color.

I used the first brush to create the edit below (mouse over to see the before image).  Today I am posting the download for the free brushes and next post will be a step-by-step tutorial how I edited this image.  Please stop by tomorrow!


Download the free CoffeeShop Sunburst Brushes! You can also download them here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

31 comments:

  1. I love the sunBurst I cannot wait to use this

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  2. i have been scouring the internet for something like this for a while now. THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to share this!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am!

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  3. I downloaded the sunburst zip file and followed you instructions: Download the zipped file to your desktop and then unzip it. Right click on the brush file (abr) and then click on "Open with" and open it in Photoshop or PSE.
    When I do this nothing happens/opens in PSE10? I have so many of your actions downloaded. I dont understand what Im doing wrong? Also ... the link to the video states the app is currently unavailable?

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  4. I love your website! Thank you, thank for everything you do.

    I tried loading the brush, but it says it's not compatible with my version of photoshop. I have CS2. :(

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  5. Anonymous, this is not an action, it is a brush set! After loading it check your brushes, it should be there. If it isn't just restart PSE.

    Samantha, are you loading this as a brush and not an action? It works in CS5 and I think it should work in all versions of CS. Make sure you are using it as a brush. R

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  6. Thanks so much for this. Can't wait to use it.

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  7. Thanks so very much! Will be great fun to use!

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  8. I think these brushes should work in CS2 and up. And I just added a screenshot how to open them in PSE. R

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  9. Oh I'm so excited to try these brushes!!! Thank you for sharing so generously.

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  10. Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies (please, notice the new url for my blog), under the Page 3 post on Aug. 08, 2012. Thanks again.

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  11. Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies (please, notice the new url for my blog), under the Page 4 post on Aug. 08, 2012. Thanks again.

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  12. Thanks for sharing!

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  13. These are so, so awesome, Rita! Thanks for all you share to help others!!!!

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  14. Thank you so much for sharing your talents! Much appreciated and I can't wait to try them out!

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  15. Thank you Rita! These look awesome and I SO appreciate the step by step instruction also!

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  16. Hi Rita, I as well can not load my sunburst brushes into PSE 7. Error comes up saying can not load due to program error. What should I do now. I did restart PSE

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  17. I think these brushes should work in PSE7 so I would try to reload them following my instructions. Remember, they are not actions!

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  18. Thank you so much for sharing! I am using PSE8, have tried three times following your directions and he brushes are not showing up? any idea how I might be goofing this up?

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  19. Heather, I don't know! Have you loaded brushes before? You might try googling???

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  20. Heather, I don't know! Have you loaded brushes before? You might try googling???

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  21. Rita, these are AWESOME! I appreciate you so much!

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  22. This looks awesome.. Thank you so mutch for sharing. I really looking forward to trying them out.

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  23. Gorgeous blog! Thank you for the brushes! It's exactly the effect I was looking for! (said student in final semester of BS program for Graphic & Web design, mother of two boys and also home schooler!!) >.<

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  24. Is there suppose to be more than one brush? When I downloaded it I kept getting only one eventhough it says brushes on the file.

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  25. kayc, just restart Photoshop and they will all be there. :-) Rita

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  26. Question- why am i getting a faint "square" outline surrounding sunburst when i use this brush? im sure its something really simple and stupid Im overlooking here! Please help : ) Thanks!

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  27. Just use a soft eraser to remove the edges, they happened when I made the brush. :-)

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  28. well done : you have a great talent ! thanks a lot for sharing ! i posted the link here : https://www.facebook.com/pages/LMIlesptitscadeauxdigi/137384909802866?ref=hl

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Thank you for taking the time to leave a message, I love reading them! All comments are personally moderated by me and I will post and answer them them as soon as possible.
Rita